Lost Within Myself
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: After a massive ghost invasion, Danny runs away - from friends, from family, from home. Needing just a moment to get away from it all, he returns, acknowledging that he is bound to those that he loves, an unrecognized savior of his town.


**Disclaimer:** _Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "Hero" is the property of Chad Kroeger, Josey Scott and Roadrunner Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

* * *

A blurred streak of black and white ripped through the dense clouds, the moisture in the air drenching the figure. Danny Phantom, fourteen-year-old human-ghost hybrid, broke through the top of the clouds, his normally wild white hair matted down by the water vapor he'd just careened through. Momentarily blinded by the bright midday sun, he shut his strange green eyes against the intrusion.

**I am so high, I can hear Heaven**

Slowly, he rested his back against the clouds, his spectral form almost melding with the billowing white masses. As he lay there, he relished in his ability to become a ghost, as his eyes were evidently showing the pain he was feeling, yet not a single tear found its way from his peridot orbs.

**I am so high, I can hear Heaven**

His best friends, Tucker and Sam, had survived the ghost attack that had just been routed without a scratch. He, however, hadn't been so lucky. A couple of grazing cuts had been left on his right arm, though they paled in comparison to the long slash that tore across his abdomen, oozing green slime-like blood.

Wincing in pain, Danny pressed his hand against the wound, feeling his body fight to mend the laceration, thankful that one of the ghost powers he'd been blessed with was an accelerated healing rate.

**Oh, but Heaven, no, Heaven don't hear me**

He'd give anything to be normal again, to just be human and nothing more. He was sick of being some mutated half-breed freak. As Danny Phantom, he was the unknown hero of Amity Park, the one that fought to keep the ghosts that attacked at bay, working without recognition to thwart all the plans the malevolent ghosts had towards his world.

**And they say that a hero can save us**

Somehow, a group of nearly thirty ghosts had managed to escape the Ghost Zone, overshadowing many of the residents of Amity Park.

Danny had taken care of the three ghosts who'd taken hold over his family in just under twenty minutes. Tucker, the unlucky victim of Technus' ghost powers, had taken some time to free, as the techno-geek's vast repository of technology was at the cyber-ghost's beck and call. Sam had been unluckily gifted with the Amulet of Aragon, and though not a threat in most cases, someone had thrown Paulina in the mix. He was sure someone _somewhere_ got a kick out of it, but nearly an hour had been wasted trying to get near enough to the dragon to remove the Amulet.

Skulker, Desiree and Johnny 13 had all made shows of their powers, Dash, Paulina and Kwan respectively falling under their control.

Nearly seventeen hours had elapsed from the first ghost he'd knocked out of his dad until the final ghost had been captured, and Danny had been exhausted. The final ghost had, in fact, been the hardest of them all to fight, and was the reason behind the seeping gash that covered his abdomen. A far too accurate shot with its own ectoplasmic energy, Danny was sure that Sam finding him was the only thing that had actually kept his opponent for decimating him.

**I'm not gonna stand here and wait**

As soon as the last ghost was secured in the Thermos, Sam had approached Danny, intending to take a look at the wounds he'd received.

Danny took off before she was even in arm's reach.

**I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles**

Flight, especially as of late, had become his escape from all the cares and worries of his life. Once more, he wanted nothing more than to get so far away that no one could ever find him, and he knew that the only available direction was straight up.

**Watch as we all fly away**

The town had faded fast from his sight, but no amount of speed would ever be able to tear him apart from the painful void he felt inside.

Sick and tired of being a nobody, he found no solace in that he was someone to his friends. They were only two amidst a sea of many, all who shunned him, tagged him with names that, over the years, had cut far too deep for him to ever hope they'd heal.

**Someone told me love would all save us**

The one name in particular that had been tearing him apart, as of late, was 'freak'. Although meant to jab at his parents' choice of profession, the unknown second meaning crushed him.

**But how can that be? Look what love gave us**

His parents cared about nothing but ghosts, and their obsession, coupled with his own careless stupidity, had changed him forever.

**A world full of killing and blood spilling**

A wave of pain resonated from his abdomen, and congealed ectoplasm seeped through his gloved fingers. The only wound still open, it took every ounce of his control to maintain his ghost form and focus on turning his powers towards mending the cut.

**That world never came**

Another shockwave of pain claimed him, and Danny felt himself dip into the cloud for a second before he managed to regain his original position on the top of it.

**And they say that a hero can save us**

The thought that had been plaguing him recently crossed his mind once more – did his parents even realize the damage they'd done by leaving the Portal active all this time? He wanted so badly to just shut the accursed thing down for good, but his dad would have been far too stubborn to just take it at face value. Danny would have to explain why the Portal had to be deactivated, and he really didn't care for the outcome of telling his ghost-hunting parents the _real_ reason he was so concerned.

**I'm not gonna stand here and wait**

Hearing a distant roar, Danny looked up and realized that he'd flown high enough that there was a commercial jetliner passing overhead. Quickly turning invisible so as to avoid the pilot's notice, he shot towards the plane, phazing himself into the cargo hold. Finding a bare spot of floor, he collapsed to the floor as he turned human, an audible thud marking his landing. Pulling his shirt up to keep it from being bloodied, he turned his full attention to sealing the wound, which was still open about a half an inch and bleeding slightly.

**I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles**

Danny allowed himself to slip into a state of semi-consciousness, finally trying to recover from the insane amount of fighting he'd been involved with, the rest a welcome essence that poured over his being.

**Watch as we all fly away**

About an hour later, his eyes drifted open, and he stretched lazily, refreshed. Looking down, the only remnant of his fight was a long pink scar that stretched from his left hip to just beneath his right rib, a scar he knew would be gone by the following week.

Phazing out of the plane, once more in ghost form, the tears in his jumpsuit mended, he skimmed the bottoms of the clouds for a few hours, and in time, found himself back over Amity Park. Diving down, he headed for the park, rocketing down from twenty thousand feet.

**Now that the world isn't ending, it's love that I'm sending to you**

He came to rest in the tangled branches of a few trees, struggling to forget the images that had come to his mind in the pain-hazed sleep-state he'd been in on the plane.

All of the images had been of the various ghost encounters that had brought him and Sam to a stage beyond 'just friends' for him.

The dance had been the most prominent memory. Unable to keep the thought from his mind about how good she had looked in that dress, her asking him to dance was the answer to his silent prayers. All he wanted was to hold her in his arms, and that came true for a few fleeting but euphoric moments.

The next memory had been that of the kiss in the park when he was being hunted down by Valerie. Though Sam continued to blow the kiss off as fake, Danny could no longer deny what it truly was. Since that day, his heart cried out for the sweet nectar of her lips, a plea that he knew he couldn't answer.

The final memory had been the most recent – Ember's concert. Most of the day prior to the concert had been a passion-filled blur for him, courtesy of the spell, but Sam's late-night visit to his room, as well as her kissing Dash, had remained crystal clear.

Despite knowing that Sam had only acted in Danny's best interests and had kissed Dash in an effort to break Ember's spell, she'd also successfully and unintentionally broken his heart. There had been no emotion behind the action, but seeing her with another had shattered him so completely that the spell could no longer hold him in thrall.

**It isn't the love of a hero, and that's why I fear it won't do**

Danny sighed as he phazed through the tree, drifting out of the range of human sight as he took to the skies again, slowly finding his way to Sam's house.

Hunched over a stack of papers sprawled on her bed, the goth was entrenched in her work, recording the details of their latest ghost hunt. The Thermos, filled to capacity, sat on the floor next to her bed, the safety lock engaged. He saw her shiver slightly, and he backed away from the window slightly, knowing he'd accidently alerted her to his presence. She turned towards the window, momentarily diverted from her note-making, but upon seeing nothing, she returned to her work.

Danny felt a slight pang in his chest as he turned from the window and flew away. He wanted to just give up the act and confess his feelings for her, but he wasn't sure that she'd understand. And even if she did, there was also the problem of his alter identity, which was something that kept her from loving Danny Fenton alone.

**And they say that a hero can save us**

Screaming skyward once more, Danny felt another twinge of hatred roll to the surface, and he winced at the self-loathing that came with it.

A hero he might have been for others, but to himself, he was nothing, for he was unable to save himself from despair and self-doubt.

**I'm not gonna stand here and wait**

Burying himself deep within a cloud, miles above Amity Park, he screamed until his lungs could no longer sustain the auditory explosion, every ounce of his internal pain pouring out of him in a resonating wail of despair.

**I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles**

He wanted so badly to just take off and never return, but he knew that there was far too much that he couldn't just leave behind him.

**Watch as we all fly away**

Amity Park, despite the ignominious anonymity he lived with, was his home. As much as he loathed what he'd become and hated how everyone treated him, it was a place he couldn't bear to leave. There were too many memories here.

**And they're watching us**

His dad may have been the main cause of his accident, as the Portal had been his idea, but he had also been the only reason Danny had survived so many of his ghostly encounters. The true genius of Jack Fenton was not in his actions or words but in the technology that came from his dedication.

**And they're watching us**

His mom had the majority of the family smarts, even if they had been skewed in the general direction of ghost hunting and study, courtesy of Jack. Just as ghost-oriented as her husband, she was the more level-headed member of the pair, responsible for the hidden modifications make to the inventions Jack left lying around, as well as the general well-being of her family, something Jack occasionally failed to remember.

**As we all fly away**

Reluctantly, Danny turned for home, barely able to concentrate on anything other than the pictures and thoughts rolling through his mind.

**And they're watching us**

Jazz was a serious pain in his neck, and a bit overbearing at times, but she was the only truly sensible one in the family. Having avoided the apparent genetic disposition towards all things dead, she was the only member of his family he would probably ever divulge his secret to…if he ever trusted her enough to just take it as what it was and not spend hours trying to figure out the inner workings of a warped teenage mind.

**And they're watching us**

Tucker was strange in his own way, so involved with his technology that he often failed to notice the world around him, which, of course, often led to him being at the wrong place at the wrong time. His first run-in with Johnny 13 should have been more than enough evidence of that point.

**As we all fly away**

Quickly phazing into his room, Danny collapsed onto his bed, going human in the process.

**And they're watching us**

Tears began to fall as a final series of images and thoughts flashed through his mind – and they all belonged to the one person, above all else, that would bind him to this town forever: Sam.

**And they're watching us**

Sam was everything he needed in his life, and everything he could ever care about. She was someone who accepted his dual nature, and she was right by his side, defending him with a grim sense of stern defiance worn into her actions. She stood by his choices, and she would defend him against anything that fought to suppress his truly unique characteristics.

**As we all fly away**

Feeling himself finally starting to drift into a restful sleep, his quiet sobs came with the release of long-withheld tears. Pain and confusion quickly melted into dark, silent unconsciousness as he fell into the open arms of sleep, the wind softly whispering in through his open window.


End file.
